The Chetboard

This message board is designed for the discussion of guitar-related issues, with particular emphasis on fingerstyle guitar and specifically , the life and music of history's greatest guitar player, Mister Guitar, Chet Atkinshttp://www.misterguitar.us/forum/

First Guitar

Re: First Guitar

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 9:28 am

by albdamned

My first guitar was a Peavey Generation Series tele clone that was given to me for Christmas around 1990 or so (I was in 8th grade). I was upstairs on Christmas eve when I heard a terrible racket downstairs - it almost sounded like a tuba from where I was sitting. I ran downstairs to find my dad trying to play it. I still remember how the case smelled and it still has a faint bit of that same new guitar case smell. I'm so lucky that my parents took the time to pick a good starter guitar for me. That little guy was easy to play and is a well made guitar. And as a Mississippi boy, my first guitar couldn't have been anything other than a Peavey.

Speaking of new guitar case smells...later on Paul Yandell helped my dad pick out a hollow body guitar (Epiphone Joe Pass) to support my thumbpicking habit. Paul had advised my dad to use sliced apples in a container as a case humidifier in the short time that it sat in the closet before Christmas (what a great Santa!). That case maintained a nice apple-y smell for years after that.

-Chris

Re: First Guitar

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 12:10 pm

by bill raymond

Silvertone from the Sears catalogue, bottom of the line, ca. 1956. The tone was anything but silver!

Re: First Guitar

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 2:57 pm

by DagerRande

Bill, I remember those Silvertone guitars in the Sears catalog. They even had one with an amp and speaker built right into the body of the guitar!

Re: First Guitar

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:14 pm

by Ray Bohlken

My first guitar was a big old blond Silvertone acoustic archtop. We had an old tape recorder with a microphone jack and I eventually got a mike and taped it to the top of the guitar to "electrify" it. It was electrified but not hi fi...definitely lo-fi. I had some fun with that guitar and I haven't thought of it in years.Ray

Re: First Guitar

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 9:11 pm

by albdamned

...And those DanElectro looking silvertones with an amp inside the guitar case.

Re: First Guitar

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 1:19 am

by EdNilo

My first guitar was a Kay flat top my mother and father got for me with S&H Green Stamps. That was about 1964.

Re: First Guitar

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 11:20 am

by bill raymond

Rande, Ray, the Silvertone that I bought cost somewhere around $13, if my memory serves, and was some hardwood, like maple or birch, stained a maroon on the back, sides and neck, blond on the top and painted on bindings. It was a flat top with a moveable bridge and tailpiece. I chose that model because I could afford it and it looked (vaguely) like what I had seen various cowboy singers play in old western movies and the colors mimicked Elvis' guitar. Later my uncle gave me another Silvetone he had bought that was a large bodied model, walnut colored, more expensive and perhaps even had a spruce top. I also bought a solidbody electric Silvertone that was painted a metallic green and had an aluminum bumper strip around the body with a rubber insert--cost $39.95, all I could afford; I had planned to buy the guitar and later buy an amplifier when I had more money, but my Dad bought me an amplifier, also at Sears that cost another $40 or so. That would have been sometime in the later 1950s. Those guitars were truly horrible instruments, but I learned to play on them.

Re: First Guitar

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 9:10 pm

by Joe Diamond

My first guitar was a Silvertone F-hole model, which I still have. My second guitar was a 1957 6120 CA Gretsch. In 1958 I called Chet and asked him how would I be able to get a stationary bigsby handle. He and Paul Bigsby made one for me. I'll never forget the big mistake that I made in 1964 when I sold that guitar, with the Chet handle, for $250 because I was broke. For the life of me, I cannot remember who I sold it to. I've got 50 guitars, but I'll never forget that one.

Re: First Guitar

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:37 pm

by DagerRande

I never even heard of Chet in 1958. It wasn't until 1962 when I first hit my teens. The stress caused by being blown away caused my first bad case of acne....lol.

Re: First Guitar

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 12:07 pm

by Eddie Estes

Small 1940s Gibson flattop my dad had in the closet. The action was pretty high.My uncle hauled it in his trunk to Harrisonburg Va to play on the Don Reno and Red Smiley show in the late 50s early 60s.